Friday – April 22nd, 2022 – Negombo
May 4th, 2022 by rallyadmin
One of the reasons for the route passing through Kitulgala was that this small town on the river has a number of “adventure” attractions like river rafting and ziplines. Before we leave, some of us have signed up for both the zipline and the river raft. Others, me included, have only signed on for the zipline.
The “fixer” who seems to have contacts with everyone in this small town, has arranged for a truck to take us to the start of the zipline. It turns out to be just a few hundred meters up the road and we could have walked but with “cat herding” in mind, the fixer probably thought it would be more efficient to load these Brits who had nearly drunk to town out of beer the night before into a truck to get them to the start of the zipline in real time.
Into the truck. Drive 2 minutes. Get out of truck. Mill about for a few more minutes. The lads running the zipline dole out harnesses to everyone and give a very short instruction on how to rid the zipline. Out to the start of the zipline just around the corner of the building.
The zipline is a couple of hundred meters long and is anchored in the river below. This is obviously a one shot deal. Hook up to the trolley on the zipline cable, face forward, lift your feet up and down the cable. The instruction to lift your feet up is to prevent you from face planting when you hit the water at the bottom of the zipline.
That assumes that you are 1. upright and 2. facing forward. The first couple of us go down exactly as instructed and when the rider reaches the bottom, he slides along the surface of the water until he slows to a stop. I’ve done this many times before so as soon as I start down the cable I promptly lay flat on my back and rotate around backwards.
The ride down passes through some trees, quite close to the trees actually, and picks up quite a bit of speed. But in less than a minute, I hit the water backwards on my back and slide to a stop. It’s fun but the river water is surprisingly cold and it takes me a few minutes to get the trolley off the cable so that we can hike across the river and climb back up to the start of the zip line.
It’s one ride and done and back to the hotel to pack up the tuktuks and depart for Negombo. Pinky and I decide to walk back to the hotel and as we get to the entrance, guests for today’s wedding are arriving, all dressed to the nines. The wedding is obviously a big deal.
As we walk into the lobby of the hotel to get back to our rooms, a very serious hotel manager stops me and with a very serious face, asks me, “When are you leaving?”. To say that he seems very nervous that this group of slightly rowdy Brits may screw-up this “very important wedding” is vast understatement. I’m sure that he is somewhat relieved when I tell him that we are leaving as soon as we can get into dry clothes and get out tuktuks packed.
The boys who opted for the river rafting come floating or swimming down the river and get out of the water right in front of the hotel. Obviously, no real white water but a nice swim. Soon everyone is at the tuktuks and packed and we are on out way.
About a kilometer up the road to a shop to get all of the tuktuks greased before we turn them in to TukTuk Rental which is a rental requirement. The tuktuks need to be greased every 1,000 kilometers and we are well beyond that distance. One by one, we back the tuktuks over a grease pit and in about 2 minutes the grease job is done. Repeat until all have been serviced. Now, we are finally on the road.
As we get closer to Negombo, the traffic gets much heavier and the road surface gets worse. Not surprisingly, the road is worse where the pavement has been patched, especially for the light, three-wheeled tuktuks. To make matters worse, now that we are close to the end of the rally, the last 50 kilometers or so, I’m getting nervous about having an accident during the last run of the rally.
Paul F, though, doesn’t seem to be bothered by the traffic or the pavement. He comes by me while we are stopped in traffic, weaving in and out of the stopped traffic. He apparently is in a hurry to catch someone, finish first, whatever.
Finally, in Negombo proper, the road widens to city boulevards and traffic actually starts to move. Up ahead of me I see Paul F again and pull up behind him. We are following the OSMand route to the TukTuk Rental office to turn in the tuktuks and suddenly he disappears again. Off the main drag. Take a right under the main drag flyover. A few hundred meters down on the left is the alleyway to TukTuk Rentals where this madness started over 2 weeks ago.
Down the alley and right into the covered garage area of TukTuk Rentals. It turns out that I’m the first tuktuk back. “You’ve won!” “I have?” “Yes, you are the first one back.” “Great! Do you have any cold water?”
The TTR crew does a quick once over. “I see you had a bit of a ding on the front fender.” “Yes, I found that the tuktuk does stop very well if you step on the brake master cylinder instead of the brake pedal.” The check the fuel just as more tuktuks start to arrive. Fuel full, I unload the tuktuk for the last time just as a torrential rain shower starts. As soon as everyone is accounted for and signed off by the TTR staff, it’s beers all around and photos galore.
The TTR staff is actually surprised that we were gone for so long and they never heard from us. At all. That apparently never happens. We explain that we are all quite experienced and are used to taking care of ourselves and fixing whatever problems we have ourselves. This is not very common in their experience. They obviously want Clemo back again.
To be fair, we really had almost no issues with the tuktuks. Mike and Dave had a from wheel bearing replaced and Brim had a broken front shock absorber replaced. But that was it. These tuktuks are hardy little beasts and, for all their quirks, a very reliable form of transportation. If you don’t mind going slow and risking your life at every turn. And who doesn’t?
The rain lets up and the beer runs out. Time to leave and out the alley to a waiting van to take us to the hotel. Thanks and hugs all around with the TTR staff and were gone again.
The hotel that we were headed to is the same hotel that we stayed in when we first arrived. But an issue arose. The hotel couldn’t give us enough rooms through the night of the 26th. WE would have had to leave the hotel on the morning of the 25th and move to another hotel for 2 nights. Clemo is not happy.
He finds us another hotel (unknown to us but with good reviews for whatever that’s worth) and we head there. We dismount from the van and Clemo and I (as approval “father”) head to the desk to negotiate the cost of the rooms and check out the rooms and the required amenities, mostly the air con.
We check out the rooms and all are satisfactory, actually nicer than the first hotel. The rooms are on 2 floors facing a large pool. A few meters to the beach. And the trinket salesmen. The rain has stopped and the skies along the beach are clearing quickly.
We settle in for a few days rest and relaxation. later, it’ll beers across the street in a little dive of a bar and dinner at a roof top bar/dining area in the hotel next door. An early night for me and Pinky who is slightly under the weather.
Obi